I get their reasoning but it fucks over a lot of people without the finances to always buy a brand new google devices and who absolutely need that kind of security.
Really grinds my gears because in the end it means only the moderately wealthy really get the benefit.
I have a pixel 6a I got refurbished and I dont have options but to make it last as long as I can and I’ve already had to change the battery manually once myself.
I think the problem is they need pretty fancy hardware to do what they do; that’s why they’re only offering to support the Motorola flagship phone (soon?), and not the cheaper models. This is what I’ve heard anyway, and it’s certainly plausible since expanding their base would be in their interest.
Depending on exactly what your security requirements are, you might be just as well off with some other phone/OS combo, acknowledging that anything else is a stepdown–I think GOS is the most secure phone out there.
I also notice my inner senior Fox News viewer complaining about people having high end phones who legitimately should not; but, at any rate, maybe you could buy a Pixel 11 off one of those people next year.
Honestly, I’m really less worried about myself and more worried about people in more dangerous situations where the cost of such a thing dwarfs even the cost to me. There’s tons of people out there who are being actively monitored by their governments and they simply can’t afford it. Like all the dirt poor immigrants being deported to countries they have never been to.
I think in instances like that, you’re better off avoiding technology altogether.
I was thinking of joining a pro-immigrant group but decided against it since it seemed largely performative/social, but I remember one of them inviting me to SMS them my signal user name. Like, what? But even if the technical side of security is top notch, infiltration would be trivial…
But even if the technical side of security is top notch, infiltration would be trivial…
Yeah really bad opsec all around in a LOT of these groups, but I’m not really sure how you organize without a means of communications. I think collective ownership of the means of communication is just as important to laborers as collective ownership of the means of production.
Well, since nothing any of these groups are doing is even illegal, operational security is nice, but really not necessary. But even if you have the technical aspects conquered, there’s no effective way to vet people for being True Believers that wouldn’t simultaneously doom your organization to low membership and paranoid infighting.
And if you ARE doing things that are illegal, organizational silos were a thing even before the internet was a glimmer in Al Gore’s eye, see: terror cells. The Battle of Algiers is a great movie that goes into how it works.
“Android devices will continue to receive regular updates and security patches through mid-2027, after which some devices may be eligible for ChromePhoneOS (no you cannot install apk files in ChromePhoneOS stop asking)”
nervous laugh
My Pixel will still be covered for 7 years though right? I need those upstream updates for GrapheneOS.
Hello, fellow Pixel 7 GrapheneOS user!
Graphene used to have a neat little chart, but interpreting this page
https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices [and scroll up one paragraph]
Might actually only be supported til Oct. 6, 2027–next year.
I get their reasoning but it fucks over a lot of people without the finances to always buy a brand new google devices and who absolutely need that kind of security.
Really grinds my gears because in the end it means only the moderately wealthy really get the benefit.
I have a pixel 6a I got refurbished and I dont have options but to make it last as long as I can and I’ve already had to change the battery manually once myself.
It’s not the same thing, but CalyxOS will run on it and supports relocking the bootloader so you don’t have that security concern like with LineageOS.
I think the problem is they need pretty fancy hardware to do what they do; that’s why they’re only offering to support the Motorola flagship phone (soon?), and not the cheaper models. This is what I’ve heard anyway, and it’s certainly plausible since expanding their base would be in their interest.
Depending on exactly what your security requirements are, you might be just as well off with some other phone/OS combo, acknowledging that anything else is a stepdown–I think GOS is the most secure phone out there.
I also notice my inner senior Fox News viewer complaining about people having high end phones who legitimately should not; but, at any rate, maybe you could buy a Pixel 11 off one of those people next year.
Honestly, I’m really less worried about myself and more worried about people in more dangerous situations where the cost of such a thing dwarfs even the cost to me. There’s tons of people out there who are being actively monitored by their governments and they simply can’t afford it. Like all the dirt poor immigrants being deported to countries they have never been to.
I think in instances like that, you’re better off avoiding technology altogether.
I was thinking of joining a pro-immigrant group but decided against it since it seemed largely performative/social, but I remember one of them inviting me to SMS them my signal user name. Like, what? But even if the technical side of security is top notch, infiltration would be trivial…
Yeah really bad opsec all around in a LOT of these groups, but I’m not really sure how you organize without a means of communications. I think collective ownership of the means of communication is just as important to laborers as collective ownership of the means of production.
Well, since nothing any of these groups are doing is even illegal, operational security is nice, but really not necessary. But even if you have the technical aspects conquered, there’s no effective way to vet people for being True Believers that wouldn’t simultaneously doom your organization to low membership and paranoid infighting.
And if you ARE doing things that are illegal, organizational silos were a thing even before the internet was a glimmer in Al Gore’s eye, see: terror cells. The Battle of Algiers is a great movie that goes into how it works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Algiers
That’d be a very Google move.
“Android devices will continue to receive regular updates and security patches through mid-2027, after which some devices may be eligible for ChromePhoneOS (no you cannot install apk files in ChromePhoneOS stop asking)”